Municipalities of the Pays Viennois

 

Luzinay used to be called "Illins, Mons and Luzinay", which we know from the oldest minutes of a town council meeting, from Year VIII (1800), as well as the 1825 cadastre. In 1833 or 1834 at the latest, the name 'Luzinay' alone was officially adopted for this town. It derives from the name of a Gallo-Roman landowner called Lucenus, which led to 'Luceniacum', which is the origin not only of Luzinay, but also of Luzenac, a small village in Ariège. According to another version, it comes from 'Lusiniacum', meaning 'nightingale'.

The citizens of Luzinay were originally called 'Luzinaisards', and then 'Luzinois', and now they have returned to being 'Luzinaisards'.
Luzinay has quite an important past, but unfortunately not much is known about it, despite the abundance of its town archives. In the Middle Ages, its land belonged to the powerful lord of Illins. The remains of his castle, perched at the top of a mound overlooking the Sévenne valley, now lie in the district of Villette-de-Vienne. The castle was destroyed, like many others, by order of Richelieu in 1633. In 1740, the fiefdom of Illins belonged to the famous financier Claude Paris de la Montagne, and then to the Portalès family from Languedoc, represented by Louis-Hercule de Portalès, who bought Serpaize and Illins from the Paris family in 1750 and kept them until the Revolution.

There used to be another, lesser castle at Luzinay: the Mons castle. There was also Nève castle, which was really only a fortified house, built in the early 16th century by the Musino family, who also gave us the fortified house called 'la Blanchonnière' in Chuzelles.

Before the Revolution, the future municipality of Luzinay was essentially shared by three parishes:  Luzinay, Illins and Mons. This means that there were three churches, three parsonages, three cemeteries, and three parish priests. The population, however, was small: 721. When France underwent a religious reorganisation in 1802, Illins, Mons and Luzinay together were left with just one 'branch office', located in the 'village', i.e. Luzinay. Luzinay Church had fallen into disrepair during the Revolution and it was deemed to be too small for requirements, and so in its meeting of 28 August 1820, the town council decided to build a new church. It was completed in October of 1823.
A little closer to our times, an important event in Luzinay's existence took place in 1926, when a triangle of land constituting the south-west corner of the municipality (a surface area of approximately 300 hectares including Nève Castle) had to be handed over to Serpaize, which was being promoted to the status of 'municipality'.

ILLINS CHAPEL

The chapel is recorded as being in the ancient parish of St Jean Baptiste d'Illins. The earliest mentions of it go back to the 9th century: 889. Historically, it was part of a set which included the castle, the farm, the chapel and its cemetery in Illins, and a fortified house in Mons.

Cemetery
The anthropomorphic shape and the presence of vertical slabs could evoke the end of the High Middle Ages.

Chapel
The rectangular nave apparently dates from the 11th century, the cheviot dates from the 12th and 14th centuries according to its ceramics and the 13th according to the figurines, silhouettes discovered under the rendering.
There was a succession of visible refurbishments over the centuries.

In 2002, the municipality and the 'Illins Chapel Association' made a commitment to study, preserve, and enhance this historic asset.

Initial soundings have revealed:
- 13th-century painted murals representing St John the Baptist as well as St Stephen, with whom he is often associated.
- A funerary mural around the border of the chapel, created after the death of an important lord.
The chapel is open to visitors on national heritage days, in September, and on 8th December (Illumination Day). It is now listed as a protected building of historical interest.